Month: December 2008

In a heartening development catalysed by the Rameshwaram Rama Sethu Protection Movement, a group of scientists gathered in London in November 2008 to declare the imperative of saving and protecting Sethusamudram as the world’s sacred ecological treasure.

The Gulf of Mannar and Palk Straits of the Indian Ocean separated by the causeway Rama Setu called Setusamudram. Setusamudram is a compound term: Sethu + Samudram (Causeway + Ocean). Unlike the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, the Sethu has for millennia served as a causeway linking India and Sri Lanka. This sacred monument is venerated in the cultures of millions of people of many nations along the Indian Ocean Rim – nations that can be called the Indian Ocean Community, analogous to the recently constituted European Community. The Sethusamudram is so sacred that every year hundreds of thousands pilgrims assemble in the oceanfront near Rameshwaram (a jyotirlinga pilgrimage place) to perform samudrasnanam (sacred bath in the ocean) at a place where the Indian Ocean remains placid like a lake. This samudrasnanam is a celebration of and homage to the ancestors of many civilizations, Hindu civilization, in particular. This homage is called pitr-tarpanam reinforcing the identity of a billion people on the globe who revere the story of Rama and the history of Sethubandha (the bund to cross the ocean built by the architect Nala, under the direction of the Avatarapurusha, Sri Rama and by vanara army led by Sri Hanuman. Both Sri Rama and Sri Hanuman are worshipped in many temples across the globe. [vanara is erroneously translated as ‘monkeys’; va-nara literally means people-like speakers, evoking the evolution of man on earth.] The causeway is a physical structure superimposed over a ridge formed by collapsed canyons in geological past in an ocean zone exemplified by Mannar volcanic rocks, heat-flows of geothermal energy potential and plate tectonics (earthquakes caused by plate-movements).

HeatflowS in Rama Sethu 100 to 180 milliwatt per sq. m. comparable to Himalayan hotsprings. Will dredging in the area activate these heat zones?

Corals of Sethusamudram

Sethusamudram is home to corals. The coral conglomerates [* File contains invalid data | In-line.JPG *], which are referred to as floating stones in many versions of the story of Sri Rama, were used to construct the causeway, Sethu (which is explained in Tamil encyclopaedia Abhidana Chintamani as ‘ceyarkarai’ that is, artificial, man-made bund). Sethubandha is celebrated in ancient texts, in the song, dance and sculptural traditions of the Indian Ocean Rim states.

Sethubandha construction shown on a 9th century sculptural panel in Parambanan (Brahmavana) temple in Indonesia.

The devastation warned, affecting over 60 million people should make every public official and scientist pause and consider the sacred ecology that Sethusamudram constitutes. Over the millennia, people have venerated the Indian Ocean as a life-source. Many young, married couples go for the samudrasnanam praying for the birth of children in their families. Millions of marine folk along the long 7,500 km coastline of India live off the marine wealth of the coastline including the wealth of corals. Corals have a particular sacred significance in Hindu civilizational traditions. The shankha or turbinella pyrum is also called the sacred conch. This sacred conch, shankha, adorns the hands of Vishnu and Bhairava, two divinities worshipped in thousands of temples all over the world. The shankha is also venerated as the conch-trumpet called Panchajanya used by Avatara purusha Sri Krishna to call the troops to battle in the Kurukshetra war described in the epic Mahabharata.Sri Rama is also shown blowing the shankha trumpet in an exquisite terracotta sculpture of the 3rd century in a village near Ayodhya.

Terracotta panel of Bhitargaon showing Vishnu blowing the conch, an event depicting Rama as Vishnu Avatara, defeats the Rakshasas led by Malyavan, Mali and Sumali and as narrated in the Uttarkandaof the Ramayana (Cantoes VI-VIII). http://ignca.nic.in/pb0020.htm

Quake-induced uplift of coral families in Sumatra Mentawai islands.Sethusamudram is an Indian Ocean region famous for the coral turbinella pyrum, shankha. At Kizhakkarai, 15 kms from Rameshwaram, West Bengal Development Corporation has an office for acquiring the shankha; the annual turnover is over Rs. 50 million ($1 million). The shankha is used to make bangles. Without shankha bangles, no Bengali or Oriya marriage is complete. So sacred are the shankha bangles.Studies of the type carried out in Mentawai Islands near Sumatra have to be carried out in Sethusamudram to record the upliftment, if any, of the coral reefs, in the region which is earth-quake prone, apart from being the only coastal region with evidence of Mannar volcanic rocks and heat-flows comparable to the heat-flows recorded in the sub-Himalayan hot-springs.

Sethu as tsunami-protection wall

The Sethu has served as a natural tsunami-protection wall in an ocean zone subject to many earthquakes and consequent tsunamis. The nearby region of Sumatra is also home to the world’s most devastating volcano, the Mount Toba that had a super-eruption about 74,000 years ago spewing volcanic ash to a depth of 6 to 12 inches all over South India south of the Vindhya Mountains.

The Bay of Bengal part of the Indian Ocean is a trough subject to recurring, severe cyclonic storms from the area of depression near Taiwan. The storm surges get sucked into the trough of Bangladesh causing enormous damage to lives and properties. The tsunami which occurred on December 26, 2004 was an event triggered by the subduction of the Indian plate under the Burmese plate resulting in the displacement of water which surreptitiously traveled as tsunami resulting in the loss of over 200,000 lives and the virtual disappearance of Aceh island. A tsunami expert, Prof. Tad S. Murthy notes that if any channel is laid across Sethusamudram, the channel will act like a funnel absorbing the energies of the next tsunami and devastate the coastline of South India because of what is known as the ‘quarter-wave resonance amplification’. This is proved by the Alaska tsunami of 1964 which resulted in maximum devastation along the Alberni Canal in Canada and the destruction of the Alberni Port.

The sentiments expressed in the London seminar echoe the judgment of the Supreme Court of India which asked the Union of India to reconsider the Sethusamudram Channel project and noted that a Pachauri Committee will go study the issue. Prof. Rajendra Pachauri heads the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an institution that received the Nobel Prize for Peace. Pachauri Committee should not only recommend the scrapping of the Sethusamudram Channel project, which will be a world calamity if carried through, but also recommend a serious, multi-disciplinary agency to study the impact of another tsunami in the Indian Ocean. Another tsunami in the Indian Ocean is not a theoretical model but a reality. Scientific advances have not been able to predict the exact date of the next tsunami but all scientists are agreed that another tsunami more devastating than the December 26, 2004 tsunami is a possibility.

This nightmare warning, this possibility has been studied by seismologists (researchers of earthquakes) and earth scientists studying corals. In a recent study published in the Science Magazine (December 16, 2008) scientists have observed that many coral colonies in the Mentawai Islands near Sumatra were killed in September 2007 when large earthquakes lifted the reefs 1 meter or more out of the water. Seismology studies show that an earthquake of magnitude greater than 8.8 on Richter scale, could rock the coastal areas of Bengkulu and Padang in the next 30 years (along the Sumatra earthquake belt), triggering a major tsunami which could put over 60 million people of the Indian Ocean, east coast of India, west coast of Burma and south coast of Bangladesh at risk.

Pachauri Committee will also be well advised to review the creation of Marine Economic Zones all along the long 7500 km. coastline of India to create new economic opportunities for the coastal and marine people.

Tsunami-protection wall in Japan

A multi-disciplinary team of experts should be constituted IMMEDIATELY, by the Union of India to study the warnings of another tsunami which will devastate the nation’s coastline and lives and property of coastal people and establish Disaster Management Zones all along the vulnerable coastline with structures like tsunami-protection walls constructed in Japan.

Next tsunami

Sacred traditions help us remember the sacredness of the earth in which we are only trustees of the present and future generations.

We do NOT have the right to destroy this sacred ecology and deny future generations, the privilege of worshipping sacred sites and remembering the ancestors who have given the humanity its very identity.

Indian Ocean Rim states impacted by the tsunami of December 26, 2004

The next tsunami is likely to impact the same Indian Ocean region – a lesson learnt from history.List and locations of catastrophic tsunamis of Indian Ocean.catastrophic tsunamis of Indian Ocean

What the scientists tell us about earthquakes and tsunamis should make us pause and ponder.The 9.0 Earthquake of December 26, 2004 at 6.58 hours at the epicenter (and in Sri Lanka) led to a sequence of 15 quakes across the Andaman region. While earthquakes could not be predicted in advance, once the earthquake was detected it was possible to give about 3 hours of notice of a potential Tsunami. Such a system of warnings is in place across the Pacific Ocean but is only being put in place in the Indian Ocean; this needs further cooperation among the nations of the Indian Ocean Community.

Nature magazine reports: “Tens of millions of people along the heavily populated coasts of Myanmar, Bangladesh and West Bengal could be living under threat of a tsunami as massive as the one that devastated the Sumatran coast in 2004, according to a report to be released by Nature on Thursday this week. The report claims that while the 2004 disaster took the scientific community by surprise many of the same warning signs currently exist in the Bay of Bengal.”

When the plate boundaries abruptly deform and vertically displace the overlying water, a tsunami occurs. A tsunami travels very fast as ocean waves, about 800 km/h, or 0.2 km/sec for a water depth of 5000 m. Seismic waves are faster and cause enormous upheavals on the earth’s crust and ocean-beds. Oceans are the treasure of humanity and it is our responsibility to harness the treasure in a sustainable manner through well-regulated Marine Economic Zones which have the potential to make the Indian Ocean Community a veritable powerhouse to create wealth of nations, while providing new livelihoos opportunities to over 2 billion people on the globe.

[quote] The distortions sought to be introduced by the myth of St. Thomas in the history of Tamil Samayam are relatable to a larger framework: expressions of Christianity in many parts of Bharatam. These have been effectively demonstrated in: Expressions of Christianity, with a focus on India, 2008, Vivekananda Kendra Prakashan Trust, Chennai 600005

The book ‘Expressions of Christianity, with a focus on India’ presents a few aspects and dimensions of Christianity, in particular Indian Christianity. This volume is meant not only for the specialist intellectual but also for the ordinary man who is interested in knowing about Christianity, which is increasingly confronting him in his everyday life. In short, it gives an academic understanding of the subject of Christianity in India and also helps as a guideline to deal with the Christian experience in an objective manner, keeping the widest interest of the country as a whole.

The Vivekananda Kendra felt it necessary to bring out this volume on Christianity not because there is any dearth of literature on this subject in our libraries. On the contrary, such material is abundant at the present juncture. But it has been written by authors who are keen to present Christianity from a particular angle and with a particular motive.

There are writings by self-confessed missionaries, by acknowledged supporters of Christian imperialism and there are also writings from self-appointed secularists. Even so- called objective historians have been hesitant to come out openly and call a spade a spade. Their hesitation is mostly due to the fear of organized, hostile criticism which will not only adversely affect the book market but also make them vulnerable to charges of being communal. Unpleasant truths are very often played down or distorted, if not totally suppressed. The total outcome of all these is that an Indian student of Christianity finds it difficult to get the truth which is reliable and useful. A lot of misunderstanding has been created by interested missionary writers and Christianity in India and also about the methods Christian missionaries have used to propagate their religion in this country.

The book exposes the methods by which highly placed clerical personalities have unscrupulously tried to fabricate history for spreading Christianity in a systematic manner. The true history of Christianity all over the world, including India, shows beyond a shadow of doubt that missionaries have indulged in cruelty and violence for spreading their religion.The Goan inquisition is well documented and no one can deny or disprove it. The destruction of temples has also been recorded. Francis Xavier who was declared a saint has a history of the cruelest sort of violence used for spreading Christianity in the coastal areas of India. Letters written by Francis Xavier himself to the king of Portugal have been published wherein he publicly declared.

“I have no words to express the joy which I felt at seeing a number of temples destroyed by their erstwhile worshippers after they were converted to Christianity.”

It was not only the poor and the neglected or the outcaste and untouchables of Hindu society whom the missionaries targeted for conversion, though that was their loudly proclaimed objective. They had another strategy of selectively approaching important personalities who wield great influence over the society by their moral and spiritual stature and leadership qualities. They made persistent efforts to contacts and slowly win over such persons to Christianity. Sri.NarayanaGuru, the saint and reformer of Kerala was one such with whom they engaged in a religious dialogue. Similarly, they made serious efforts to appeal to Mahatma Gandhi’s religious sympathy and admiration for the teachings of Christ. Needless to say that their efforts had no impact whatsoever on these stalwarts. But what is significant is that such silly efforts were made with the firm conviction that these great souls are doomed to eternal hell if they do not get baptized and that it was their bounden Christian duty to save them.

The outcaste and the untouchable were inhumanly treated by the upper caste Hindus and their salvation here and hereafter would be assured if they became Christians. That was the carrot dangled before them. But it was only a ploy. The converted Dalits remained in the same plight with all their social and economic disabilities unrelieved. Even separate churches and separate sitting arrangements were provided for them, and equal social status- intermarriage and interdining, for instance-was denied. Even today, these deplorable conditions continue to prevail except nominally. The disillusioned Dalits clamor for better treatment.

The book will bring a clearer, better and more authentic understanding about Christianity in India and will ultimately pave the way for a better and more cordial understanding between all concerned. It deals with Christianity’s historical developments both in the West and in Asia. As the title suggests, the book looks at the practical, outer expressions of Christianity rather than its theological foundations.

What interests us is not how a Christian preacher might ideally present his creed, but how it has manifested in actual fact for pre-r non-Christian Europeans, for the natives of America, Africa or India-also for Western intellectuals who started questioning Christianity. The publishers acknowledge that they cannot do justice to such a vast and complex theme in a single volume, but have tried to offer an overview, of which the average Indian reader will usually be quite unaware as it is: while this perspective is frequently and freely discussed in West, it rarely, if ever, forms part of debates on Christianity in India. Indian Christians themselves have the foggiest notion of the history of their religion, its origins, its expansion, its institutions, its destruction of other cultures, the ways in which it was challenged by leading Western intellectuals, its clash with science, and finally its spectacular retreat in the West.

Just as histories of colonialism have been largely written by the colonial powers, in effect erasing the testimony of the colonized, most histories of Christianity- and in India, all of them –have adopted Christian standpoints as a matter of course. In this volume, the publishers sought to reverse the perspective and assert the right of the countless victims of Christianity to be remembered, and, when still possible, to be heard.

At this stage, sincere Christians usually object that if their religion does have a dark past, that past also has a brighter side: think of the spread of Christian values, or selfless service offered at great personal scarifies in the farthest corners of earth; think of the countless kind –hearted Christians who have been embodiments of compassion, charity or service; think of the vast amounts of literature, painting, sculpture or music inspired by Christian themes; think, finally of the great heights of spirituality reached by Christian mystics. Have such achievements not benefited humanity at large? And do not other religious have their own darker sides, too? Is it fair, therefore, to single out Christianity for a one-sided treatment? Is this not as bad a mis-portrayal as the one Hindus Complain of when it comes to their religion?

These questions contain partial truths. Partial, because the spread of Christian values, in the few cases where those values were practiced at all, was always at the cost of earlier cultures which were illegitimately assumed to be inferior, because every religion gave rise to literature and art, which conquering Christianity often destroyed, because Christian mystics have been far fewer than those of others religious ( especially India’s native religions) and were often regarded with much suspicion, sometimes persecuted, by church authorities, and because whatever dark spots there may be in non-Abrahamic religions, none has ever treated dissenters or adherents of other belief systems remotely as cruel as Christianity did.

There lies Christianity’s Central and persistent problem: it has been all too eager to practice its God’s declaration that “every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood” ( Genesis 8:21) – a dismal stamp of sin and evil put on humanity. Again , no non – Abrahamic religion or culture so demeaned the human being.

Nevertheless, if a Christian chooses to believe in a doctrine of original sin and redemption, of damnation and salvation, of eternal hell or paradise, the Hindu, for instance, will respect such a choice. If a Christian claims to find spiritual fulfillment in his religion, the Hindu will feel happy for him, even if the reverse is rarely true.

But the Hindu, the Buddhist, the Native American, African or Australian, the Neo pagan also have a right to ask

Why the spread of Christianity has meant so much misery and the dehumanization to non- Christian?

Why the “good news” and glad tidings” had to manifest through physical and cultural genocides, leaving trails of broken families and shattered cultures?

Why Christian colonizers stole land from non-Christian cultures when they were supposed to follow a commandment enjoining them, “you shall not steal” ?

Why criminals and abusers among them were more often protected than prosecuted?

Why apologies have been so few and vague, and concrete reparations even rarer?

In this era of human rights, they are entitled to ask what will be done to restore the rights of those who threatened no other culture, but whose land and traditions were preyed upon.

And what will be done to protect the rights of those still preyed upon today. Those questions and many more, remain largely unanswered; our sincere Christians must address them.

For Christianity’s dark side is regrettably not confined to the past; a companion volume will focus on proselytism – a euphemism for predation-again adopting the perspective of the prey rather than the prevailing one of the predator.

The materials presented in the book are authentic and intended to stimulate an informed debate. The articles are arranged under the following five sections:

Ø Origins and early history of Christianity

Ø Expressions of Christianity in the west

Ø Expressions of Christianity in India and elsewhere in asia

Ø Intellectual Challenges to Christianity

Ø The decline of Christianity

All boxed items appearing in the book have been prepared by the Vivekananda Kendra’s editorial team.

The authors who wrote papers specially for this book and its forthcoming companion volume, Christianity: Proselytism and Conversion, with a focus on India; include eminent thinkers such as Michel Danino, Nicole Elfi, Sandhya Jain, M. Pramod Kumar and S. Aravindan Neelakandan.

A book of this nature might be opposed by the Pseudo-Secularists and by the liberalized and Westernized Hindus, who are interested only in continuing their Utopian ideas of Westernization and in whose eyes, Indian religious values are all superstitions. Communists are bound to disapprove all what is written, in spite of the fact that they are still deeply immersed in the Hindu religion. The maximum opposition may be expected from the Pseudo-Secular politicians of today, who are always engaged in double talk. [unquote] Book review by Pradeep Kumar, 9 June 2008.

Thamizhar Samayam: A reply to the Christian protagonists and propagandists?

The public seminar on Thamizhar Samayam was conducted by Dharma Rakshana Samithi, Chennai at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, T Nagar, on 07-12-2008 at 6.30 pm. Muthukumaran Former Barathidasan University Vice-Chancellor presided over the function and Krishna Jagannathan of Vidhyabarathi Educational Trust gave the introductory speech. Sri Omkarananda Swamigal of Sri Bhuvaneswari Avadhutha Vidhya Peetam, rendered the special address[1].

Muthukumaran Former Barathidasan University Vice-Chancellor[2]: Delving on the Christian and Mohammedans methods of evangelization, he pointed out that the educational system of Tamilnadu had completely devoid of the religion of Tamil people. 60 years before, Tamils were taught about their religion and the Temples were functioned as their nerve-centre of all activities, but now, the Temples have gone into the hands of politicians.

We still read the “Indian history” written by the British: He pointed out that as we read the “history written by the British”, the Tamil society has been at loggerhead with divisions of hatred. The text books have not been re-written in right perspective[3]. The more our children read, the more they grow with such planted ideas.

He told a story to expose the irreligiousness and hatred of the missionaries: Three persons – one Christian, one Mohammedan and a Hindu travelled in a boat and suddenly, the boast was about to be drowned. The Christian prayed to Jesus and he was saved; the Mohammedan prayed to Allah, he was saved; but the Hindu started addressing prayers to different Gods one by one, but he could not be saved! But it s wrong to say that Hindus have been not monotheistic and idolatrous, as they know very well about Unity of Godhead.

While the Tamils spread nearly 50 countries all over the world celebrated Tamil festivals, the Tamils of the TN, ironically do not know even the significance of their festivals and days, drawing the nearing of “Periya Karthhikai”.

He denied the “Aryan-Dravidian” racial dichotomy and pointed out as to how the people of north and south respected the southern direction and followed common culture and tradition[4]. Tamils wherever went followed only such tradition, even in naming the places as Uttara Kasi, Dakshina Kasi and so on[5]. Due to climatic changes, men originated from the equatorial region could have spread north and south[6]. Actually, the mention of “Dwaraka” and “Kapadapuram”, where people tried to enter and settle down after deluge could be one and the same, as both convey the same meaning (the city, where people entered).

The entire Tamil literature has been full of religious references to Sanskrit literature. Perhaps, there is no other literature like Tamil, which has religious aspects in it. When Jainism and Buddhism tried to enter Tamizhagam, Bakti movement originated and spread to the north. This Bakti movement was revived again, when the Mohammedan incursions started.

From Kumaragurubarar, we can understand that Tamil poets had never been against any language, as he could lecture in Hindusthani, as Sanskrit was used before.

The nature of Tamils had / has been to build temple first and then house, wherever, they went. In Mauritius, Tamils have built almost all temples. Such has been their religious consciousness.

Krishna Jagannathan of Vidhyabarathi Educational Trust: Referring about the Christian manipulation of religious propaganda, he warned the Tamils about the misinterpretation of Christians that their religion was derived from the Christianity etc. He openly accused Deivanayagam, John Samuel, Devakala and others for organizing “International conferences” and blaspheming Hindus under the guise of “Thamizhar samayam”. He referred to three conferences conducted –

He urged that Tamils cannot take such nonsense lightly, as they have been trying to repeat such lies thousands time to make it to appear “truth”.

He regretted that even former president had participated in such anti-Tamil conferences conducted in 2007[10]. Ironically, they use cine-actors directly and indirectly for their propagandist activities, while Rajinikanth name was mentioned for the role of Tiruvalluvar in their proposed 100-crore mega movie on “mythical thomas”, Kamal Hassan was made to blabber out that Tiruvalluvar could be a Jain, a Buddhist or Christian!

He retold the above story: In the context of Mumbai-Jihadi attacks, he added that Christians and Muslims could not be saved, as Jesus and Allah had to run here and there being a single entity, but Hindu God sent different Gods to different places, so that Hindus could be saved.

The DK ideology and DMK rule have only made the Tamils irreligious forgetting their Temple culture, tradition and heritage.

Sri Omkarananda Swamigal of Sri Bhuvaneswari Avadhutha Vidhya Peetam: Being a Tiruvalluvar exponent, Tirukkural teacher and Mutt Head, he expressed his anguish, the way in which Tiruvalluvar is degraded and Tirukkural disrespected by the Christians and Tamil atheist groups.

Hindu Religious Heads and Hindus feel offended and pained much: Religious Heads pained, wounded and anxious about their activities. They might think that Hindus have been very tolerant and learned to be patient to the core, thus keep quiet. The Hindus have never been taught hatred against other religious Gods and religious beliefs and that is why they do not ask any inconvenient questions, even when the Christians and Mohammedans ask why you God has many wives, Why Vinayaka has elephant head and so on. But such non-hatred quality cannot be considered weakness of Hindus. But now a situation has come that Hindus should learn how to answer them or question them effectively.

Babar and Teresa are quoted for Tirukkural: He pointed out as to how a Vice-Chancellor[11] of a University of TN requested him to preside over his book release function on “Tirukkural”, but he was totally taken aback to note that he had only given examples from Therasa, Babar and others, but none from Indian personalities in citing references to the Kural. He observed that the author of the “Tiruvalluvar book” could not recite even Tirukkural properly.

The Hindu haters should read “Azhukkaranai” chapter of Tirukkural[12]: “Azhukkaramai” means the psyche of without jealousy, envy or covetousness. The Christians, Mohammedans, Tamil atheist groups and Hindu-haters should read and understand before talking nonsense about Hindus. He questioned the duplicity of the Dravidian-Tamil politician about the hypocritical approach towards Tiruvalluvar[13]. He challenged the politicians that they should recite Tirukkural before the public, before contesting elections.

Tirukkural should be written in the hearts of the Tamil people: As he has been preaching and teaching Tirukkural, he exposed the hypocrisy of the Tamil politicians. He pointed out that it is not enough, if Tirukkural is written on the buses or commentaries given by CMs and VCs, but they should be written in the hearts of the Tamil people.

Can Hindus send books urging Mullahs and bishops to “change their minds”? He also pointed out the audacity of a Christian, who sent him books on Christianity and appealed him to “change his mind” to accept Christ. He sent a suitably reply and challenged him to come for a public debate at Palayankotai itself, bringing his Christian heads, but there was no reply from him. While mentioning this, he also pointed out as to how a “Hindu journal” did not publish his letter![14] Retorting, he asked whether any Hindu had guts to send books to Bishop, Imam. Mullah etc., and urged them to “change their minds”?

He urged that one conference should be conducted, taking this meeting as a starting point, to refute such misinterpretations.